The increasing ubiquity of tablet computers in family households is turning children away from traditional toys, and could spell the start of a serious decline for the makers of old favourites such as Barbies and board games.

Electronics products such as iPads and rival tablets have now been around long enough for parents to be buying newer versions, and consequently handing down their older ones to their kids.

Analysts are predicting that this spells real trouble for the likes of Hasbro and Mattel, the largest toymakers, with some lowering sales forecasts for the Christmas period accordingly, according to a report.

Fight is on: Old favourites such as board games and Barbie dolls may still be on kids' wish lists, but for how long?

'The top two guys, Mattel and Hasbro,
they are terrified,' said Sean McGowan, managing director of equity
research at Needham & Company - an investment banking firm - in the
Financial Times.

Dylan Collins, an investor in online
gaming company Fight My Monster, said in the same newspaper: 'Everyone I
know who has a kid under 10 has a tablet in the house.

'And that tablet is the babysitter.'

The problem is twofold - that
boardgames cannot compete with the new exciting technology, but also the
fact that these are taking up more and more of the children's time,
leaving less need for other toys anyhow.

With the top-selling Mattel product
this year being a mobile phone case, the suggestion is that toy
companies are right to be concerned.

Mattel's own ill-fated attempt to
muscle in on the video gaming boom in the 1980s saw the firm almost
bankrupted. And Hasbro's chief marketing officer admitted there is a
trend the company needs to watch out for.

'Clearly, young people have an
aptitude for and expectation with digital platforms that we need to
recognise,' John Frascotti told the Financial Times.

However, children have been
entertained by home computer consoles by the likes of Nintendo, Sega and
Sony for around 30 years, and traditional toy makers are still going
strong - fourth quarter sales forecasts of $1.41billion and $2.29billion
for Hasbro and Mattel respectively do not suggest there is
insignificant demand yet.

Mattel's share price on the New York
stock exchange closed on 21 December at 36.89, down 0.45 cents (1.2 per
cent) - but it has risen steadily this year from 27.76.

Hasbro's has been slightly more up and
down; it finished at 36.04, down 0.56 cents (1.5 per cent), having
started the year at 31.89 and experiencing a high of nearly $40 in
September.

Meanwhile, overall UK high-street
spending in the run-up to Christmas has been 'acceptable but not
exceptional', the retail industry trade association said today.

Spending over the final weekend before
Christmas hit the predicted £5billion, according to the British Retail
Consortium, but swathes of retailers still risk going under after the
festive period as consumers' household budgets suffer with rising prices
and frozen wages.